My New Favorite Protest Song

I saw Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band on Saturday night and it was a tremendous show. They rocked so hard for almost two straight hours that I couldn't even be disappointed that they didn't play my new favorite protest song.

Conor Oberst is known for being the frontman of Bright Eyes, an indie rock band from Omaha. Oberst writes beautiful, evocative, poetic lyrics and sings with a fiery intensity and heartbreaking warble in his voice. The first Bright Eyes album I listened to was I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, a brilliant record with Oberst singing about loneliness, drug abuse, eating disorders and suicide, but also renewed love and a sweet song about taking photos at a demonstration. I've been trying to catch up with all the Bright Eyes releases that I missed. Bright Eyes has a lot of different sounds depending on the album, which can be a little confusing for the listener, but I find Conor Oberst's song-writing so interesting, that I just want to know what he's going to do next.

His last two albums were made on a break from Bright Eyes with a group of musicians that he asked to go down to a studio in Mexico to make a solo album. One thing led to another, and after Oberst's self-titled solo album was released, the band became a band, they went on tour, decided they needed more material and ended up cutting another album as Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, called Outer South. Both these latest two albums are awesome and actually, Outer South in particular will probably appeal to a lot of listeners who like rock and blues.

Seeing the band on their last tour date in a smaller hall with the band hitting on all cylinders was amazing. They played mostly songs off of Outer South and Conor Oberst and had tremendous intensity for the entire set. Conor talked about recording the second album outside of El Paso, Texas where they could walk down to the Mexican border and watch crews work literally all night on the giant fence that is supposed to keep us all safe from terrorists. He's a serious poet, and it's cool to see him writing something angry about the society we live in. The lyrics to "Roosevelt Room" off of Outer South are below. You can hear a couple of songs from the album for free here.


Roosevelt Room, by Conor Oberst

Hey there son of Adam
Hey there daughter of Eve
Help me sing this tear gas riot song
To some fresh faced police
They won’t even know what hit ‘em
When they lift their roman shades
And the people’s sun comes pouring in on a brand new day

You who dammed the river
You who changed our mountain’s name
First we want Denali back, then we’re taking over Washington states
You give death as a consolation
You know only hate and rage
You paid a dowry for your child bride and now she’s living like a slave

A prayer came down the wire
It was all in the enemy’s code
You couldn’t figure put what mercy meant so you did like you were told
When they finally sent the doctors
Once the fireball went out
There was nothing left but the cockroaches and a movie with no sound

What good what good are you
With your Cherokee trail and your Roosevelt room
What good what good are you
With your Seneca plague and your Arlington tomb

Go ask Hunter Thompson go ask Hemingway’s ghost
It all catches up with you when you get just a little too old
Take a hard look in the mirror
It’s a thing that you cannot see
Your shadow’s long but the day is young
It just wasn’t meant to be

There’s no blankets for the winter
There’s no oil in the lamp
And I like to write my congressman but I can’t afford the stamp
You want me to pay my taxes so you can propagate your lies
One of those barefoot dudes down in New Orleans looking like they’re gonna die

You who quit the legends
You who poisoned all my dreams
You who pinned all of the medals on the boys from Omaha beach
Hope you haven’t got too lazy, I know you like your apple pie
Cuz the working poor you’ve been pissing on are doing double shifts tonight

what good what good are you
with your seneca plague and your arlington tomb
what good what good are you
with your cherokee trail and your roosevelt room